Manga / Dragon Knights

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Rath: Hey, ugly! We are the slayers of the unholy, the keepers of justice, the guardians of truth!

Thatz: We cannot be defeated! We are the Dragon Knights, scourge of demonkind! And, uh... we're kinda lost.

A manga series by Mineko Ohkami, Dragon Knights tells the tale of the war between the Dragon tribe led by Lykouleon, who seeks to protect the world, and the Demon tribe led by Nadil, who wants to take it over. To help save the day Lykouleon sends out his best fighters, the Dragon Knights. Traveling to Nadil's dark castle they cut of his head, ending his reign of terror.

And all of this happens before the first chapter.

Now that the heroes have the head of the Demon Lord, they must protect it from everybody else who might seek to bring Nadil Back from the Dead, or simply claim his power as their own. Of course things are never easy, and with evil plots, foul monsters, and shiny distractions around every corner, the Knights will have their hands full trying to keep their victory as such.

Dragon Knights provides examples of

A Form You Are Comfortable With: When the specter needs to have a talk with Kitchel, because she refused to talk to a "ghost" he took the physical form of a small, squirrel like creature instead, known as Sacreds in their world, to get her to listen.

Affably Evil: Can apply to Kharl, he even unknowingly buys flowers from one of the heroes and accepts his invite to lunch. Also Sabel.

Co-Dragons: Both Shydeman and Shyrendora act as dragons for Nadil's army, with Shydeman having the power to manipulate bodies while Shyrendora has the power to manipulate minds. Even though it's implied that the two should have the same amount of power, Shydeman tends to act as the leader of the two.

Good Scars, Evil Scars: Interestingly enough, it's only the heroes who have scars. Thatz has his from his former street days. Gil's scars mostly come from torture and self-infliction. Ruwalk has some across his chest from his encounter with the "terrible demon". And Rath has a scar across his neck after his first suicide attempt in volume 6.

Kaleidoscope Eyes: If only because Ohkami can't ever stay consistent with a character design.

Karma Houdini: Kharl, despite the many problems he causes for both sides and being the direct cause of the near extinction of the Fairy tribe, ends the series in pretty much the same position he was in at the start of it.

Lethal Chef: Both Rath and Kharl are abysmal at cooking. Rath somehow manages to put sand into porridge and Kharl managed to make a mandrake out of a salad!

Language of Magic: Whenever Nadil casts the spell on Lykouleon that curses him to bleed to death, he speaks it in a strange language made up of square shaped characters. Quite possibly Black Speech but it's never clarified.

Loyal Animal Companion: Several of these, first we've got the dragons and their knights. Then Lykouleon used to have a pair of demon dogs, Illuser and Crewgar, and Kharl had a pair of birds that helped him with his alchemy.

No Export for You: Ohkami had created a bunch of bonus Dragon Knights chapters after the series had ended, which were printed together in a book in Japan. However, it seems like Tokyopop had little interest in importing it to the US, understandable considering the series's obscurity.

The Only One: Poor Rath, everyone's depending on him. Even the villians.

Our Dragons Are Different: First you've got the elemental duel dragons, who chose their Dragon Knights and then aid them on their adventures. Then you've got the Dragon Tribe, which is the governing family of their country, Draqueen, and characterized by immortality, eternal youth, Cute Little Fangs and Pointy Ears.

Royal Blood: Pretty important in Dragon Knights, since most of the plot revolves around how the Dragon Lord lacks an heir to the throne and the crazy measures they have to take to circumnavigate this problem. Members of the royal family are subjected to Blood Magic too. For the Dragon Lord, his blood is like a powerful, super condensed form of light magic, too potent for anyone but the Queen to touch it.

Sealed Evil in a Can: Varawoo, a giant demon fish, is sealed away by the Water dragon so that he doesn't flood the world. Of course, this makes things a little tricky when Rune comes to unseal the Water dragon. But it turns out Varawoo can be sealed by multiple things. After Rune releases the Water dragon, Tinlett seals the demon fish instead, until finally Rune returns with enough power to seal Varawoo within himself.

Shinigami: Shinigami in the Dragon Knights world take the form of Death Fairies, and turn out to be what Reema and Duma truly are. Little is shown about them except that they are visible only to those near death and their job is to lead noble souls to the afterlife after granting them one wish. Interestingly, they are the only characters in the series to wear Eastern styled clothing except for when they decide to done the Black Cloak. Later on, Alfeegi comes back as a Death Fairy.

Shoot the Dog: Averted, when Lykouleon is unable to kill the crazed Illuser and turns him into Rath instead.

Sibling Yin-Yang: Shydeman is always shown to be the calmer brother, while Shyrendora is more of the hot-headed sister.

Sleep-Mode Size: The Duel Dragons can shrink down into smaller versions when their knights don't need them. It also seems to be implied that a Duel Dragon can only reach its full size when it's knight is present.

Snow Means Love: Subverted, Rath really loathes snow. Especially since it reminds him of his hatred of Kharl.

Super Empowering: Cesia has the latent power to exponentially increase anyone else's power with just proximity, she doesn't even have to will it.

Superpowered Evil Side: Of course, Cesia's evil side claims to be far more powerful than her true self. She even insists that she's the "real" Cesia and is shown to have much greater control over her powers. The same could also be said of Gil, who is more powerful in his demon cat form, but he has no control over his actions. Then arguably Rune, after he's gained the power of Varawoo.

Unlimited Wardrobe: Ohkami actually does a good job of keeping the characters outfits different. There's even a chapter where the characters spontaneously decide to change their clothes after being in the same outfits for a few volumes.

Wig, Dress, Accent: Happens a lot more often during the beginning of the series. The Dragon Knights had to do this a comple of times in drag, then you've got Hugh, and even Cesia's disguise as an innkeeper. Fedelta does a disguise later on in volume 6.

Winged Humanoid: Several of the characters appear with wings in illustrations or covers, including Rath, Cesia, Rune, Thatz, Zoma, Kharl, and Alfeegi. Then all of the little water light fairies have insect type wings. Rath actually does gain wings for a brief period, and it's implied that in the old days when he lived together with Kharl, they both had feathery wings on their backs. Zoma appears with wings for a fleeting second as well, seen only by the fortuneteller, Delte, foreshadowing his true identity later on.

Wrestler in All of Us: Tetheus. When told by Kitchel that he can't use his sword on the monsters, he decides to suplex them instead.

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